M4 SPEED CAMERA PROTEST SAT 30TH APRIL - BE THERE

[Diesel]

It is SO time to challenge the continuing enlargement of the 'big stick' and statistical spin approach to motorists's persecution.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE PROTEST



Silver RS4, high vis jacket, Leigh Delamare 09:59!

[flashyg]

looks like the m4 will be bumper to bumper.
Sorry mate I wish I could go I'm afraid to venture out , I might get caught on the way.
Seriously I'd love to go but it is mile and miles from Manchester.
Careful how you go.
G

[simple1]

Hope to see a few more there, gonna take the big silver bus and clag the place up

[bobjebb]

How was it?

[simple1]

never seen 545 mile fuel range on the big bus before Gonna travel everywhere at 40 mph from now on..... even goin to buy a new bubble Micra
In all honesty, lots of local press coverage, lots of support from bridges, but not much more, did get lots of waves and thumbs up, and one <beep> in vectra giving the one finger solute, but he was probably late for his Saturday afternoon bout of agro on the terraces judging by the scarfs hanging out the window:<beep>_you:

[Diesel]

What an absolute success and achievement the day was with over 400 attending, despite it being a bank holiday; great to see quite a few nice Audis and the odd tyre muching bus there too Simon

The event was covered by all national and many regional TV & Radio and has gained massive publicity for the cause, the counter-argument and for the website. It also reinforced for me how much support there is for the campaign from the general ‘non petrol head’ public – not a single negative response whilst out leafleting in the car parks - apart from one Mrs ‘slightly late for lunch’.

It was great to see that the crowd attending were definitely not there because they immaturely wanted some carte blanche to speed, or had some grudge against the roads being policed properly. They were there because they refute the simplistic ‘safety’ argument [particularly the one centred on quango’s ‘profit or die’ principle] and also refute the huge big authoritarian ‘one size fits all’ stick that continually bashes us over the head whilst real road issues and tangible dangers are ignored. Most like me welcomed GATSO’s in villages/towns when sensibly applied as visible deterrents but remain very concerned that the escalation to mass covert camera devices is actually causing road deaths to go up. This is the first time in British road history that this has happened and flies in the face of the policy of unnecessarily persecuting all motorists at all times in all conditions.

As just one individual I feel rewarded with what I achieved – this included tentatively leafleting the constabulary that were preparing to police us and receiving a quiet nod of understanding from one or two of them (as many of us do ‘off camera’ – they were also totally cool on the day btw). I also pre-arranged to contribute to two radio programmes and added other soundbites on the day. Hearing back my line about “the governments response to a massive 560 deaths due to drunk drivers [in 2003] being a doubling of speed camera sites - despite the tiny fraction of accidents caused due to excess speed alone” WAS FABULOUS!!! Tens of thousands must have heard that as well as others’ remarks and importantly the airtime given to Paul Smith’s calm credible and extremely well researched comments.

By now we have all the ammunition we need to discredit these scameraships via http://www.safespeed.org.uk and we should all get writing and canvassing!

E.g I have drafted a letter to sergeant Nick Blencowe [cc’ing newspapers and TV/Radio newsdesks] quoted by the BBC saying that 12% of all KSI accidents in Wiltshire happen on that stretch of M4 – hence the need for cameras. I need him to supply his sources of data and methodology for this strange statistic. It seems to me that this is BY FAR the road with THE highest volume of traffic Wiltshire HAS, so, on a miles per vehicle per accident basis it is may actually be THE SAFEST road they have; ohh and he cunningly fails to mention if these accidents were CAUSED by speed alone… That fatal lorry crash last week http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/...ire/4463667.stm clearly wasn’t as trucks are limited to a perfectly ‘safe’ 56mph.

Pick holes in their self serving spin and flawed inaccurate claims and flash it straight back at them!

D